


When She Was A Child

by Jenwryn



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe, Backstory, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-03
Updated: 2009-04-03
Packaged: 2017-10-02 06:59:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenwryn/pseuds/Jenwryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Renji's warmth had always been home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When She Was A Child

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt '#51 - Rukia", from LJ's [bleach_contest](http://bleach-contest.livejournal.com).
> 
> It's mostly backstory. My version of backstory, anyways. So I guess that makes it AU. :)
> 
> Huuuuge thanks to my darling [passthebutter](http://passthebutter.livejournal.com), who introduced me to the music that this was written to! ♥
> 
> Unbeta'd.

_So I'll swim as the water rises up, the sun is sinking down,_   
_And now all I can see are the planets in a row,  
Suggesting it's best that I slow down._

~ Jack's Mannequin, 'Dark Blue'.

*

When Rukia was a child, life had been simple - rough, but simple. Life was a daily thing; it just happened. It began with the sunrise across Rukongai, swift or slow, depending on the season; heralding heat, or further cold, depending on the month. It began with her waking up to the warmth of Renji's back against hers, his vertebrae almost countable. Sometimes it began with her in his arms, her own arms wrapped around him, so that one of her elbows hurt with having been slept upon, and then she really _could_ count them, his backbone playable beneath her half-awake fingers.

Renji's warmth had been home, and safety, and, as she'd grown older, it had been all those things plus something_ indefinable_. There were mornings when she woke almost_ too_ comfortable, as if such a closeness could grow awkward in its sweetness. And then there were mornings when he rolled quickly out of her grasp, blushing strangely, as if her touch embarrassed him, although she wasn't entirely sure why - Rukia may have grown up in the back-streets, where life was perpetually two-and-a-half-inches from your face, but that didn't mean she hadn't stayed impossibly, impossibly naïve, beneath the shelter of Renji's protection.

But she sees it all now, when she wakes, alone and frighteningly clear-headed, in the Thirteen Division. Life has changed. The slow mornings are gone, and the bitter scent of blood and dissolving spirit particles have taken their place. She's become a shinigami, a fighter, a woman. She _gets _it now.

To her surprise, Renji doesn't say a word, the morning he wakes to find her back pressed against his.

He doesn't say anything the morning after that, or after that, either.

But his hands hold her differently now, as her lips speak understanding against his skin.


End file.
